Friday, June 10, 2016

My thoughts about Brock Turner

When two people are caught in the sad
situation of Brock Turner and his rape victim, we can’t help but moan, groan,
and worry about their futures. The victim statement of the woman Turned raped
at Stanford has been widely distributed, praised by Vice-President Joe Biden,
and gone viral on the net. It’s a powerful statement which, I think, comes from
a position of strength. I wonder if this woman won’t go on to become a lifelong
advocate for rape victims. We know nothing about her life and circumstances but
somehow I feel she’ll make the best of this.

But what about Turner who has been vilified
on the net and whose picture confronts us every time he goes on Facebook? We
know a little more about him, and it’s not all good. His father’s statement is
the clue we need.

I’m a fiction author, so I see things
in scenes and true or not I can imagine scenes between that macho father and
his son. The son looks from the photos to be much more timid that the dad, and
I can imagine the dad urging his boy to buckle up, act like a man, get some action.
Perhaps that was even a motivation between the rape—Brock proving himself to
his father.

The next scene I see is the father castigating
Brock after the event. The boy has ruined everything but most principally his
life. He’s banned from swimming competitively in the US, when he apparently had
Olympic hopes; he has to register as a sex offender. His life is essentially
ruined by 20 minutes of “action.” The question in my mind is what will he do
after he serves that ridiculously short jail term designed to keep him from
being impacted by the trauma. (Did anyone worry about the impact on the victim?)

Brock Turner has essentially two
choices: he can sink into despair and depression, fall back on his family,
perhaps become alcohol or drug-addicted, and essentially fritter his life away
on the excuse that he ruined it in one short episode.. Or he can pull himself
up by the bootstraps, start small, and make the most of whatever he can salvage
from his life. People have overcome even more horrendous circumstances, with grit,
determination, and perseverance.

Somehow I hope Brock Turner does that.
No matter how despicable what he did is—and it certainly is—I suspect he’s a
nice kid caught in the web of circumstances that is college life and alcohol.
Perhaps he too can become an advocate for rape victims and an active crusader
against the plague of rapes that has come upon our culture…and our world.

I’m pulling for both these people. I
think we as a village can do more than condemn—we can reach out in support and
help them put their lives back together.